The Identity of Place: Pitcairn Island in Cultural and Historical Geography

ABSTRACTTHE IDENTITY OF PLACE: PITCAIRN ISLAND IN CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHYCHRISTINE K. JOHNSONPitcairn Island is a small, remote Pacific island in southeastern Polynesia. Although the archaeological record shows traces of human habitation in the island's prehistory, Pitcairn is more famous for its contemporary history derived from a notorious maritime adventure: the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. Pitcairn Island is both a home to forty-eight permanent residents and a sort of living museum, with endemic species of plants and birds, Bounty-era artifacts moved into a small museum, and scattered across the landscape, and a landscape that itself has innate historical points of interest. With 224 years of recorded history, Pitcairn has a living legacy from the Bounty saga, and is a place of interest for seafaring captains, tourists, historians, filmmakers, and authors. Polynesia markets itself as Paradise, with tourism a primary industry for the last thirty years. However, if "Paradise" is a place of the imagination, Pitcairn Island is very real, subject to the ideals and perceptions of an increasingly globalized world intent on exploiting island history, perhaps to the detriment of the residents of Pitcairn. Neither wholly Polynesian nor British in culture, the Pitcairners live in an island landscape with challenges but also benefits housed within a paradisiacal region, and work daily to counteract a negative image as a haven for deviance and misbehavior that has developed beyond their control. The impact of a negative image externally imposed on a place as small as Pitcairn is telling, and will require changes to attain economic sustainability in the future

Precipitation and latent heating distributions from satellite passive microwave radiometry. Part I: improved method and uncertainties

A revised Bayesian algorithm for estimating surface rain rate, convective rain proportion, and latent heating profiles from satellite-borne passive microwave radiometer observations over ocean backgrounds is described. The algorithm searches a large database of cloud-radiative model simulations to find cloud profiles that are radiatively consistent with a given set of microwave radiance measurements. The properties of these radiatively consistent profiles are then composited to obtain best estimates of the observed properties. The revised algorithm is supported by an expanded and more physically consistent database of cloud-radiative model simulations. The algorithm also features a better quantification of the convective and nonconvective contributions to total rainfall, a new geographic database, and an improved representation of background radiances in rain-free regions. Bias and random error estimates are derived from applications of the algorithm to synthetic radiance data, based upon a subset of cloud-resolving model simulations, and from the Bayesian formulation itself. Synthetic rain-rate and latent heating estimates exhibit a trend of high (low) bias for low (high) retrieved values. The Bayesian estimates of random error are propagated to represent errors at coarser time and space resolutions, based upon applications of the algorithm to TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) data. Errors in TMI instantaneous rain-rate estimates at 0.5°-resolution range from approximately 50% at 1 mm h−1 to 20% at 14 mm h−1. Errors in collocated spaceborne radar rain-rate estimates are roughly 50%–80% of the TMI errors at this resolution. The estimated algorithm random error in TMI rain rates at monthly, 2.5° resolution is relatively small (less than 6% at 5 mm day−1) in comparison with the random error resulting from infrequent satellite temporal sampling (8%–35% at the same rain rate). Percentage errors resulting from sampling decrease with increasing rain rate, and sampling errors in latent heating rates follow the same trend. Averaging over 3 months reduces sampling errors in rain rates to 6%–15% at 5 mm day−1, with proportionate reductions in latent heating sampling errors

Reducing Sexual Risk among Racial/ethnic-minority Ninth Grade Students: Using Intervention Mapping to Modify an Evidenced-based Curriculum

Background: Racial/ethnic-minority 9th graders are at increased risk for teen pregnancy, HIV, and STIs compared to their White peers. Yet, few effective sexual health education programs exist for this population. Purpose: To apply IM Adapt—a systematic theory- and evidence-based approach to program adaptation—to modify an effective middle school sexual health education curriculum, It’s Your Game…Keep It Real! (IYG), for racial/ethnic-minority 9th graders. Methods: Following the six steps of IM Adapt, we conducted a needs assessment to describe the health problems and risk behaviors of the new population; reviewed existing evidence-based programs; assessed the fit of IYG for the new population regarding behavioral outcomes, determinants, change methods, delivery, and implementation; modified materials and activities; planned for implementation and evaluation. Results: Needs assessment findings indicated that IYG targeted relevant health and risk behaviors for racial/ethnic-minority 9th graders but required additional focus on contraceptive use, dating violence prevention, active consent, and access to healthcare services. Behavioral outcomes and matrices of change objectives for IYG were modified accordingly. Theoretical methods and practical applications were identified to address these behavioral outcomes, and new activities developed. Youth provided input on activity modifications. School personnel guided modifications to IYG’s scope and sequence, and delivery. The adapted program, Your Game, Your Life, comprised fifteen 30-minute lessons targeting determinants of sexual behavior and healthy dating relationships. Pilot-test data from 9th graders in two urban high schools indicate promising results. Conclusion: IM Adapt provides a systematic theory- and evidence-based approach for adapting existing evidence-based sexual health education curricula for a new population whilst retaining essential elements that made the original program effective. Youth and school personnel input ensured that the adapted program was age-appropriate, culturally sensitive, and responsive to the needs of the new population. IM Adapt contributes to the limited literature on systematic approaches to program adaptation

Labor and Management Relations: Historical Perspectives and Current Trends

Capstone paper from 2015 spring MPA program. Instructed by Allen Zagoren.Over the last 125 years, labor unions and management in the United States have had working relationships that have ranged from positive to co-existence to adversarial. In recent decades, declines in union membership, politically charged legislation seeking to limit union influence, and pressures on management to maintain profits in a global economy have introduced further strain on labor and management relations. In this paper we will examine the factors that impact labor and management relationships on a local level and what can be done to improve them. To provide a bigger context, the history of legislation and economic factors that have influenced labor and management relationships throughout their existence in this country will be explored. Additionally, interviews of labor and management leaders revealed generational differences, complacency, and lack of communication can negatively impact labor and management relationships. Solutions to these problems will be offered and include utilizing a “Problem- Solving, Relationship-Building” (PS/RB) approach. Although hard metrics for this approach are difficult to define, it has been used successfully on both an organizational level as well as on a regional level. Finally, we will describe the resources available to not only begin this approach with labor and management, but to sustain the effort and the benefits it offers

Patients’ and consumers’ perceptions of and involvement in safety and quality in Australian general practice

The importance of patient safety and quality research is renowned worldwide, but research outlining the interventions, intended outcomes, measurement and effectiveness are few and far between. Most of the research surrounding patient safety has focused on measurement and identifying what constitutes a risk, analysing, evaluating and managing risks effectively. Identifying practices and process of successful quality improvement can lead to effective results through greater understanding of the development, design and evaluation of complex interventions. Davidoff & Batalden (2005) point out that health care safety and quality research adds to scientific discovery and experiential learning, and that disseminating knowledge leads to better performance.However, there is still lack of relevant, timely, appropriate, accurate and transparent studies on this topic. Research on safety in primary care is just beginning to emerge as much of the literature has focussed on secondary care settings. Furthermore, research involving patients and carers is in its infancy and there has been a call to engage and partner with patients more effectively to improve the safety and quality of care they receive. Patients and carers have an important role to play when preventing errors and reducing harm. They have firsthand experience of their care, and are often able to provide detailed information about the processes, systems and structures that have led to the occurrence of an adverse event. Although there are many well-recognised benefits for involving patients to improve the safety of their care, there are still some unresolved contentions regarding the effectiveness of interventions, the roles and responsibilities for both patients and health professionals, and the kind of health care culture and organisational governance required for patient involvement in safety to occur successfully. A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve the delivery of patient centred care has shown that there are some promising approaches. This mainly includes improving patient education, health literacy, self-management skills, and capacity for making decisions, as well as developing partnerships with physicians, and contributing to safety and quality of care. There is also a growing evidence base centred on how health professionals can better support patient engagement in care. Patient involvement in health care has been proposed as a promising approach to achieving better quality of care, greater cost efficiency, and improved population health. Much of the literature on patient involvement in safety has focussed on partnering with patients to reduce harm in hospital settings. Hand hygiene interventions and speaking up campaigns dominate the evidence base in this area. However, research that has been conducted in general practice is scarce. A tool to measure patient involvement in decision making in general practice has been developed by Elwyn and collegues (2003), Sanders et al (2013) have found that interventions aiming to increase patient participation as a means to improve health outcomes in general practice are non-conclusive, and Flink et al (2012) have investigated patient activation during handover between primary and secondary care. Apart from these studies little else has been undertaken in this setting. To the authors knowledge only one study conducted in Australian general practice found that patient directed questioning improved information provision by physicians and patient involvement in safety. While there are some examples of partnering with patients to improve the safety of primary care, there is no evidence of how patients and carers view safety. Having an in depth understanding of patients and carers perceptions of safety is the starting point for designing and implementing effective and appropriate interventions that can help to reduce harm in the primary care setting.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy

Comparison of Three Drug Combinations for Raccoon Immobilization

Raccoons (Proycon lotor) are regularly handled for damage management and research objectives. Safe handling of these animals in the field requires drug combinations that provide effective and predictable results with high safety margins for both the animal and personnel handling the animal, but also have a low probability of abuse. United States Drug Enforcement Administration scheduling relates to the probability of a drug being abused; class I drugs are associated with the greatest potential for abuse. We compared three drug combinations: butorphanol-azaperone-medetomidine (BAM; class IV), nalbuphine-azaperone-medetomidine (NAM; unscheduled), and ketamine-xylazine (KX; class III). Through a dose titration process, we identified optimal drug dosages of 0.016 ml/kg for BAM, 0.018 ml/kg for NAM, and 0.096 ml/kg for KX. The induction time was similar for all drugs. Only with KX were raccoons able to recover unaided by reversal drugs. After giving reversals, recovery times for BAM and NAM were relatively quick (average \u3c 7 minutes). Based on blood oxygen saturation levels and respiratory rate, oxygen was administered to 72%, 71%, and 21% of the raccoons immobilized with BAM, NAM, and KX, respectively. Breathing was cyclic in raccoons immobilized with BAM and NAM, and some raccoons were given reversal agents prior to completing a workup due to low respiratory rate or low oxygen saturation levels. Raccoons immobilized with KX were observed with a more regular breathing pattern. Based on our results, it is highly recommended that both oxygen and associated reversals be available when using BAM or NAM to immobilize raccoons